Valene Edwards, a student at Brigham Young University—Idaho, in Rexburg, Idaho, received second place for her design that uses the red-and-white Eero Saarinen-designed Tulip chair to influence the space’s clean, curved lines.

Netting third place, Julie Arthurs, a student at Lakeland College in Vermillion, Alberta, Canada, split her design into two separate spaces. A one-wall layout hosts the cooking appliances, keeping traffic areas clear of core kitchen components while also helping to segment the space into eating, cooking, and computer-use areas.

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A three-hour design challenge whittled a pool of 390 student designers from 31 colleges down to 81 local-level winners, the top three of whom were announced by the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) earlier this month. In its sixth year, the charrette—a collaboration between the NKBA and General Electric—required college-level students to produce a floor plan with specifications, a design statement, and either a perspective or elevation drawing, all within the constrained time frame. The kitchens were to include GE Monogram Professional Kitchen or GE Monogram Designer kitchen appliances. The top three students were awarded $5,000, $4,000, and $3,000 in scholarships, respectively. Check out the winning designs in our slideshow.